American Pharoah, Justify To Shuttle To Coolmore Australia For 2021 Southern Hemisphere Breeding Season

The Coolmore Australia stallion roster for 2021 sees the introduction of one of the very best proven sires in Europe and one of the very best 2-year-olds in Australia.

“We are very excited to welcome Wootton Bassett, a Group 1-winning champion 2-year-old on the track and one of the most exciting sires in Europe, to our roster.” said Coolmore Australia's sales and nominations manager, Colm Santry. “He will join Redoute's Choice's dual Group1-winning son King's Legacy, in a line-up headed by multiple champion sire Fastnet Rock, who is coming off one of the most successful seasons of his illustrious career.”

Wootton Bassett – with a first crop of only 23 foals conceived at a fee of just €6,000 – exploded on the sire scene courtesy of son Almanzor, triple Group 1-winning champion of his generation, whose first Australasian yearlings this year proved a great hit with buyers.

Wootton Bassett has also sired the likes of dual Group 1-winning filly Audarya, conceived at a fee of only €4,000, and Group 1 Prix de l'Abbaye (1000m.) winning colt Wooded, from a €6,000 fee, while his 2-year-old crop of last year included Group 2 winner and 2,000 Guineas candidate Chindit.

In such esteem is Wootton Bassett held that in Europe he currently commands a fee of €100,000 (AUS$155,000), highlighting the great value he affords Australian breeders at his introductory fee of only AUS$71,500.

King's Legacy needs little introduction, winner as he was last year of both the Group 1 Sires' Produce and Group 1 Champagne Stakes. The most accomplished juvenile of his generation, with the impeccable good looks to cost AUS$1,400,000 as a yearling, he is also the only son of Redoute's Choice ever to win multiple Group 1 races at two. Closely related to Not A Single Doubt, from the family of successful sire Snippets, King's Legacy will stand his first season at a fee of AUS$33,000.

These two new boys join a roster laden with proven Group 1 sires like Fastnet Rock, Pierro, So You Think and American Pharoah, last-named, along with Justify, U.S. Triple Crown winners at great-value fees.

With a support cast of outstanding sprinters like Yes Yes Yes and Merchant Navy, Group One Guineas winners like Churchill, Magna Grecia and Saxon Warrior joining explosive two-year-old stars like Royal Ascot Coventry Stakes winner Calyx, Blue Diamond winner Pride Of Dubai and Golden Slipper winner Vancouver, the Coolmore Australia roster really does offer a sire to suit every mare at a price for every pocket.

Sire 2021 Fee (inc. GST)

Adelaide – AUS$5,500

American Pharoah – AUS$49,500

Calyx – AUS$13,750

Churchill – AUS$22,000

Fastnet Rock – AUS$165,000

Justify – AUS$55,000

King's Legacy (NEW) – AUS$33,000

Magna Grecia – AUS$19,250

Merchant Navy – AUS$33,000

Pierro – AUS$110,000

Pride Of Dubai – AUS$22,000

Saxon Warrior – AUS$13,750

So You Think – AUS$77,000

Vancouver – AUS$22,000

Wootton Bassett (NEW) – AUS$71,500

Yes Yes Yes – AUS$38,500

  • Rubick and Highland Reel will stand at Swettenham Stud in association with Coolmore

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Lil Indy, Dam Of Maximum Security, Dies At Age 14

Lil Indy, the dam of champion Maximum Security, died Saturday evening while foaling a Curlin filly, owner Jane Lyon of Summer Wind Farm announced Monday on social media.

“It is with deep sadness I have to announce the passing of Lil Indy, the dam of Maximum Security,” Lyon wrote in her post. “She died foaling a beautiful Curlin filly Saturday evening. While she graced Summer Wind Farm for a far too short time, she captured our hearts with her sweet demeanor and beautiful spirit. She will always remain in our hearts. Godspeed Lil Indy, you were loved here.”

The 14-year-old daughter of Anasheed died having her second foal for the Summer Wind operation, following a Quality Road colt born in 2020 named Qualified.

Lil Indy was purchased by Summer Wind Farm for $1.85 million at the 2019 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, near the end of what would be Maximum Security's championship 3-year-old campaign. A year earlier, at the same sale, she sold to Korean breeding interests for $11,000.

At the time she was sold to Korea, the mare had an unremarkable resume. She'd produced two winners from three runners for breeders Gary and Mary West, but none had earned any black type. The Wests had purchased Lil Indy, pregnant for the first time to Pioneerof the Nile, for $80,000 at the 2014 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale.

Within a few months after the 2018 transaction and the mare's export, West homebred Maximum Security, by New Year's Day, was on top of his division with a win in the Grade 1 Florida Derby. He'd go on to win the G1 Haskell Stakes and Cigar Handicap, and the G3 Bold Ruler Handicap, during the remainder of his 3-year-old campaign, and he famously was disqualified from first to 17th for interference in that year's Kentucky Derby.

Meanwhile, Lil Indy foaled out a full-sister to Maximum Security while she was in Korea, and the pair were brought back stateside to test the commercial waters after the success of the dam's most famous foal.

It was an incredible turnaround for Lil Indy, who sold as a yearling for $2,200 at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling Sale. She raced on the east coast over the course of her 19 career starts, graduating in a Delaware Park maiden claiming race in her eighth start, and later taking a claiming race at Penn National.

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Commentary: How Will Evolving Public Morality Affect Horse Racing’s Future?

Thoroughbred Racing Commentary contributor Daniel Ross wrote this week of the evolution of public attitudes and how they can and will affect the future of the sport of horse racing. He considers the public embarrassments racing has endured in just the past few years, from the spate of deaths at Santa Anita to the photograph of trainer Gordon Elliott astride a dead horse, and asks why those instances have garnered such intense media attention, while others, perhaps equally as egregious, have fallen by the wayside.

Ross writes: “Why, for example, has disciplinary action been metered out by the sport's regulators to Elliott but not to Sheikh Mohammed, whose wife fled to London allegedly fearing for her life, and who has been accused of kidnapping and imprisoning his daughter? Is one action more morally repugnant than the other?”

And: “If, for example, the broader media is genuinely incensed by mistreatment of horses for sport, where are all the column inches devoted to the ongoing problem of match racing in the U.S., an unregulated and illegal activity notorious for prodigious drug use?”

He posits that both the prevalence of social media and the presence of well-funded animal rights campaigns may be behind the impetus for horse racing to change how it views the importance of public perspective.

Ross concludes: the sport of horse racing “still gets to write its own story. Which one, however, will it choose?”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary.

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Steve Kornacki Joins NBC Sports’ Kentucky Derby Coverage

Steve Kornacki, NBC News' and MSNBC's celebrated national political correspondent, will join NBC Sports' 2021 Kentucky Derby coverage this Saturday, May 1 at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

Kornacki, who has been widely lauded for his ability to easily communicate the complex election process, will apply his unique analytical perspective in “Meet the Contenders” segments on the Kentucky Derby field. In addition, he will offer insight on notable betting trends.

Last fall, Kornacki brought his election-style coverage to Football Night in America, breaking down the NFL playoff picture.

“After successfully tackling FNIA, we're excited to have Steve join our Kentucky Derby team,” said Rob Hyland, Coordinating Producer of NBC Sports' Kentucky Derby coverage and Football Night in America. “We expect he will be right at home working a sport that includes terms like neck-and-neck, down-to-the-wire, and dead heat.”

“It's going to be a thrill to be at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May, something I've wanted to do since the very first Derby I watched as a kid in 1987,” Kornacki said. “To get to play a role with the NBC Sports team, which I've been a fan of for years, is an honor.”

Kornacki, who will be making his first trip to Churchill Downs, is a native of Groton, Massachusetts, and regularly attended races at nearby Suffolk Downs and Rockingham Park in his teens and as a Boston University student. One of his earliest horse racing memories came when an uncle took him to the harness races at Scarborough Downs in Maine. He picked five consecutive winners. It's a performance he's spent the last three decades trying to replicate.

NBC SPORTS GROUP AND HORSE RACING: NBC Sports Group is the exclusive home to the most important and prestigious events in horse racing, including the Triple Crown, the Breeders' Cup World Championships, Royal Ascot, and Pegasus World Cup Invitational Series. NBC has been the exclusive home of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes since 2001, and the Belmont Stakes since 2011, when NBC Sports Group reassembled the Triple Crown.

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